1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a storage apparatus and a storage apparatus power failure management method.
2. Description of the Related Art
A storage apparatus comprises a storage part, which is connected to a plurality of hard disk drives in an array, and provides a logical storage region (logical volume) to a server or other such host computer (hereinafter, “host”).
To enhance reliability and availability, a storage apparatus provides a host with redundant storage regions based on RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks). A storage apparatus such as this comprises at least one or more control boards. This control board controls the exchange of data with the host, and the exchange of data with a hard disk drive.
When a failure of one sort or another occurs in a control board, technology constituted such that shutting down only the control board in which this failure occurred makes it possible to replace the control board in which the failure occurred without halting the operation of the storage apparatus is known (Japanese Laid-open Patent No. 2003-36127).
Technology constituted such that, when a failure occurs in a control board, it is possible to individually control the supply of power to each of a plurality of functionalities of the control board, is also known (Japanese Laid-open Patent No. 2006-31630).
Technology for enhancing the maintainability of a system by collecting information related to a failure that occurs inside a digital computing system, and storing this failure information in nonvolatile memory is also known (Japanese Laid-open Patent No. H5-324367).
A control board monitors the power supply voltage, and when it detects a power supply voltage abnormality, it immediately shuts down the supply of all power inside the control board. This is because when a digital circuit malfunctions due to an abnormality of the power supply voltage, this malfunction is likely to cause the reading and writing of data that is not accurate. For example, in a LSI (Large Scale Integration), which utilizes a plurality of types of power supply voltages, if one of those types of power supply voltage continues to operate for a long period of time in a shutdown state, this could also result in device damage. Accordingly, in order to maintain safety and reliability, a control board immediately shuts down the supply of all power when an abnormality occurs in any one of the power supply voltages.
Thereafter, the control board in which the power supply abnormality was detected is removed from the storage apparatus by maintenance personnel, and sent to the vendor repair center. However, since there is no information indicating which of the control board's power supply voltages generated an abnormality, a worker at the repair center installs the control board in which the power supply abnormality occurred in a storage apparatus for test use, and attempts to recreate the power supply abnormality. The worker pinpoints the cause of the failure by observing the voltage waveforms of numerous locations on the control board. Therefore, it takes a long time to specify the malfunctioning member and figure out the cause of the failure, making the workability of inspection work and analytical work low.